Proposition 1: Enlightenment is the realization of the most real.

Proposition 2: Full, or great, enlightenment is the realization that the most real is the highest good.

Proposition 3: Wisdom is the purest expression of the most real in the form of the highest good.

The Essential Point

Wisdom is where the rubber hits the road.

Some Simple Arguments

1.) Socrates did not realize the most real. It follows that Socrates, as he understood, was not wise. Koan: What is beyond ignorance and knowledge of ignorance?

2.) Ethical misconduct by spiritual teachers suggests that either Proposition 2 or Proposition 3 is the true. Either they were not fully enlightened (see, e.g., spiritual bypass) or they were not wise.

3.) Secular modernity, succumbing to the Third Poison in Buddhism, denies out of hand the possibility of Proposition 1. (See also “the noble search.”) Remark: Very dangerous.

4.) Proposition 2 implies that kensho or sartori does not suffice (Proposition 1). Nor does a “mere glimpse.” One has not, in fact, carried the inquiry all the way through. Only in full enlightenment is there complete stabilization in What Is.